Ambrosia
Ambrosia was the food of the Olympian gods — anyone who consumed it became immortal, but mortals who ate it without permission were severely punished.
The Meaning of Ambrosia
Ambrosia, the food of the gods on Olympus, conferred immortality on any who consumed it. Zeus, Hera, Athena, and every Olympian sustained themselves on ambrosia and its liquid counterpart nectar, served by Hebe or Ganymede. When Demeter wandered the earth mourning Persephone, she neither ate ambrosia nor drank nectar, and the crops died with her. Thetis anointed the infant Achilles with ambrosia to burn away his mortality, though she could not complete the process. Calypso offered Odysseus an immortal life sustained by ambrosia, but he chose Ithaca. Tantalus stole ambrosia from Olympus to share with mortals and was condemned to eternal torment in Tartarus.
Symbols
Fun Fact
Ambrosia salad — the American dessert with marshmallows and fruit — is named after the food of the gods. The fruit salad does not confer immortality.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Nectar
💭 conceptDrink of the gods
Nectar was the divine drink of the Olympian gods, served by Hebe and later Ganymede — the liquid complement to ambrosia.
Ambrosia
💭 conceptLanguage and food
An English word meaning exquisitely delicious food or anything supremely enjoyable, derived from ambrosia, the food of the Greek gods that conferred immortality
Nectar
💭 conceptLanguage and botany
An English word for sweet plant secretions or any delicious drink, derived from nectar, the drink of the Greek gods that conferred immortality alongside ambrosia
Tantalize
💭 conceptTemptation, frustration, torment by proximity
To torment with something desired but just out of reach, from King Tantalus and his eternal punishment.
Ichor
💭 conceptDivine Nature
The ethereal fluid that flowed through the veins of the Greek gods in place of mortal blood.
Metamorphoses
💭 conceptTransformation, punishment, mercy
Stories of mortals and gods reshaped into new forms — by love, divine punishment, or compassion — central to how Greeks explained the natural world.
Creation of Man
💭 conceptNarrative
The mythological accounts of how humanity was fashioned from clay and endowed with life by the gods
Asphodel Meadows
💭 conceptUnderworld
The neutral afterlife realm in Greek mythology where ordinary souls wandered after death.
Athanasia
💭 conceptImmortality
Athanasia was the concept of deathlessness — the fundamental divide between gods (athanatoi, the deathless) and mortals (thnetoi, the dying), which defined Greek cosmology.
Tantalus
🗡 heropunishment
King invited to dine with the gods who stole nectar and ambrosia and served his son Pelops as a stew to test divine omniscience.
Creation of Pandora
💭 conceptNarrative
The crafting of the first woman by the gods as a punishment for humanity after Prometheus's theft of fire
Abduction of Persephone
💭 conceptNarrative
The seizing of Persephone by Hades and its consequences, which explain the origin of the seasons